22 April 2004 - Concerns for Farmers, Injury Risk While Tagging and Clipping Cattle
The Highlands and Island Health Research Institute has conducted a survey into injury arising directly from the work of tagging and clipping cattle, in which nearly 600 farmers reported some sort of injury. This has prompted the National Farmers' Union Scotland (NFUS) to raise its concerns with the HSE.
The work activity is required due to a 'passport' requirement to tag calves and clip cattle before slaughter, NFUS takes the view that the short regulatory timescale to carry out this work is significantly increasing the risk to farm workers.
It is thought that the HSE is about to carry out field visits to observe the activity first hand.
John Kinnaird NFUS President, commented:
“Farmers
should take every possible step to minimise the risk of tagging calves, in
particular using extra manpower and separation facilities where possible.
However, there are circumstances when that is not practical and our members
should not have to risk their lives to comply with a deadline.”
